Greeks, Books and Libraries in Renaissance Venice Transmissions Studies on conditions, processes and dynamics of textual transmission Edited by Rosa Maria Piccione Volume 1 Greeks, Books and Libraries in Renaissance Venice Edited by Rosa Maria Piccione This publication was made possible through funding provided by the Università degli Studi di Torino. ISBN 978-3-11-057520-0 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-057708-2 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-057529-3 ISSN 2625-4018 Library of Congress Control Number: 2020936124 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston; finished printing on November 2, 2020. Cover image: Salone Sansovino © Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Orsola Braides and Elisabetta Sciarra Reconstructing a Library: Case Studies from the Archivio dei possessori of the Marciana National Library in Venice 1 Foreword The Marciana National Library’s database of provenances (called Archivio dei Pos­ sessori, or AP: <https://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/la-biblioteca/cataloghi/archivio- possessori>) has been available on the library’s website since November 2014. The AP is a project collecting data and photographic records referring to the owners of the Library’s printed books and manuscripts: bookplates, stamps, owner- ship and readers’ notes, and binding marks. The project – together with others imple- mented by Italian and international libraries – aims at reconstructing the history of the Library’s holdings and of every single item. It is part of a broader project sup- ported by the Marciana focusing on the history of its holdings and collections, as well as on single exemplar, and is linked to the cataloguing of ancient printed books in SBN (Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale), with particular attention being paid to single items; to the cataloguing of manuscripts in NBM (Nuova Biblioteca Manoscritta); and to involvement in the international MEI project (Material Evidence in Incunabula), which aims to reconstruct the history of book circulation in the 15th century through material evidence found in books. The software was designed from the outset to integrate data from several librar- ies: nowadays these are the University Library in Padua, seventeen libraries of the Autonomous Province of Trento, and three institutions in Venice: the Cini Founda- tion, the Querini Stampalia Foundation, and the Museum Correr Library. Today, the AP includes around 2,000 records along with more than 8,000 free access images, and it is constantly expanding. It catalogues identified and uniden- tified owners in order to facilitate recognition. Although data can be simply con- sulted by browsing, it is also possible to query the system by starting with ownership marks, owner’s name, and shelfmark. Every record indicates one (or more than one) Note: Paragraph no. 2 is by Orsola Braides; paragraph no. 3 is by Elisabetta Sciarra. Paragraph no. 1 (Foreword) was written by both. All links to the records and web pages were last consulted on May 8, 2019. The Italian cataloguing system distinguishes between possessore (“owner”) and provenienza (“prove- nance”), indicating with provenance only the last owner of the book before it became part of library col- lections. On the other hand, the English cataloguing system uses only the term “provenance”, uniting both meanings. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110577082-012 286 Orsola Braides and Elisabetta Sciarra shelfmark and each is linked to its online cataloguing description. Thus, AP consul- tation is complementary to catalogue consultation. The AP is supplied with a brief User’s Guide,1 where common-use abbreviations are also indicated. 2 The Provenance Database Design The Marciana bibliographical descriptions, available on the local OPAC – Polo VEA2 – always record notes related to items, with specific attention paid to owners and prov- enance. In the SBN cataloguing system the data related to owners are exclusively available on the local OPAC; in the current version of Sebina software in use on Polo VEA – Sebina Next – they appear in the UNIMARC record (UNIversal MAchine Read- able Cataloguing),3 where owners and notes containing provenance information are tagged as 317 and Name (Author) is tagged as 702 or 712, depending on type (personal or corporate body names). The software supplies the UNIMARC mapping of the owners in order to allow research and downloading of the data themselves, although it provides access to the AP from the OPAC system through a link. Therefore, the AP has been designed to support and complement the online library catalogue. After a period of testing (July–October 2014), it was inserted on the Library’s official website in November 2014. At first, it contained 160 records, but by the beginning of 2015 the records had already reached 280; today they number more than 2,000. The need to create a simple, functional, low-cost database which includes at the same time detailed descriptions, has led to the creation of a system divided into a small number of fields: owners (personal or corporate body names), type of owner- ship marks, library and related shelfmark, supported by a series of images. Querying the AP directly from the Library’s website has enabled the develop- ment of an easily consultable system, in coordination with Bazzmann srl Venice. Like the Library’s website, the AP system is based on Drupal version 7, which assigns a unique code to all data inserted by the librarians in order to facilitate data storage management. A unique code is serially assigned to every item managed by the system: Users/Librarians, Nodes (including images in the owners’ records), and taxonomy (connecting terms among nodes, such as owners and corresponding shelfmark). 1 <http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/la-biblioteca/cataloghi/archivio-dei-possessori/guida-alluso>. 2 < http://polovea.sebina.it/SebinaOpac/Opac.do>. 3 Hopkinson (20093) 326–328, 538–539. Reconstructing a Library 287 Each item is given its own code, having a different denomination – UID (User IDentifier) for librarians, NID (Node IDentifier) for nodes and TID (Term IDentifier) for taxonomies (see Table 1). Table 1: Schema of the entry Owner and its links. In the same way that users normally consult an online catalogue – without necessar- ily knowing the main entry – in the AP system the access point to the owner’s name (main entry) is linked to several added entries, including those available on the items and those derived from external sources, catalogues, and bibliographies. A textual note (Description) is linked to the univocally identified owners, enabling access to external links. What is especially significant for the reconstruction of the history of Marciana and its rare holdings are the Non identificati (Unidentified) owners (with single TID), where identity is unknown. The AP enables the aggregation and retrieval of items characterized by identical ownership marks, even if they have not been identified under an owner’s name. The choice of dealing with Unidentified owners derives from problems arising in the case of a similar SBN entry such as the unidenti­ fied printers’ device, which has a single entry linked to several editions, which cannot be catalogued under printers as they are printers’ devices, while in the AP they may 288 Orsola Braides and Elisabetta Sciarra be catalogued under type of ownership mark – Unidentified stamps, Unidentified binding marks etc. – and under image correspondence. Persons and corporate body names are in authorized form according to Italian Cataloguing Rules (REICAT)4 and are linked to as many added entries as possible. On the basis of this system an Owner Index has been designed which automati- cally records all entries for the owners. During the creation of a new entry, the option of advanced research for existing entries is available, so as to enable recognition of previously recorded entries. Considering a constant increase of entries – with more than 2,000 main entries, there are more than 1,300 added entries – if a record is unavailable, the system pro- vides a negative answer. Likewise, when a new entry is being recorded the system checks all available entries so as to avoid creating duplicates. The Description field displays bio-bibliographic data relating to owners. Where owners are unknown an indication of the century is provided where possible. We have chosen to create a free­text field where librarians can insert links to external sources in order to provide as much historical and biographical information as possible. Each record is given a sequence number automatically generated by the system, also read- able by users, which if deleted or merged is no longer considered by the system. The field Ownership marks is linked to the main entry; this field also includes temporary custody (not only ownership); it has been divided into six headings, or five plus one that cannot be included under any of the other headings. The headings are as follows: – Other: None of the headings mentioned below, as data is derived from external sources to the book, such as handwritten or printed catalogues. – Binding marks: These include coats of arms, initials, printed names, and rep- resentations linked to specific owners. – Bookplates (ex libris): Small labels that bear woodcuts, engravings, and photo- mechanical prints serially produced and glued onto the volumes, usually on front pastedown, in order to indicate ownership. This heading includes all ex libris, as well as ex dono, whether armorial or artistic. – Reading notes: Marginalia, annotations, corrections, and drawings. – Ownership notes: Initials, cryptograms, signatures, handwritten annotations (i.e. Ex libris d.ni…), hand-drawn, illuminated coats of arms. – Stamps: All kinds of stamps, with no distinction between armorial and artistic or official stamps, unlike for the ex libris.